ADEOS II follow on program

ADEOS II was launched on Dec., 2002. However, after about 10 months operation, it has lost most of its power due to the solar paddle failure. The exact cause of the accident is not apparent at this time, JAXA is now considering to launch a satellite as a substitute of ADEOS II. Up to now, candidate sensors on board this satellite is 3, i.e. GLI follow on, AMSR follow on and SeaWinds follow on. The GLI F/O would be rather different from GLI. The main targets of GLI F/O are atmospheric aerosols, coastal zone and land. In order measure aerosols over both ocean and land, it would have ultra violet channels, as well as polarization and bidirectional observation capability. For, coastal zone and land observation, the IFOV of GLI F/O for these targets would be around 250 m. The instrument would be composed of several components. The shorter wavelength region would adopt push broom scanners, while long wave region would use a conventional whisk broom scanner. AMSR F/O would be very similar to AMSR on ADEOS II and AMSR-E on EOS-Aqua. SeaWinds F/O would be also similar to SeaWinds on ADEOS II with some modifications. There are two options on the orbit. One is the same to that of ADEOS II, i.e. around 800 km altitude. Another is a higher orbit to allow faster turn around. The target launch date is fiscal 2008